Peter Gavin Hall
Peter Gavin Hall AO FAA FRS[3] (20 November 1951 – 9 January 2016) was an Australian researcher in probability theory and mathematical statistics.[4] The American Statistical Association described him as one of the most influential and prolific theoretical statisticians in the history of the field.[5] The School of Mathematics and Statistics Building at The University of Melbourne was renamed the Peter Hall building in his honour on 9 December 2016.[6][7][8][9][10]
Peter Hall | |
|---|---|
Peter Hall in his office at The University of Melbourne in 2007 | |
| Born | Peter Gavin Hall 20 November 1951 Sydney |
| Died | 9 January 2016 (aged 64) |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Alma mater | University of Sydney Australian National University University of Oxford (DPhil) |
| Awards | Australian Laureate Fellowship (2011) Guy Medal (2011) George Szekeres Medal (2010) Rollo Davidson Prize (1986) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics Statistics |
| Institutions | Australian National University University of California Davis University of Melbourne |
| Thesis | Some problems in limit theory for stochastic processes and sums of random variables (1976) |
| Doctoral advisor | John Kingman[1][2] |
Education edit
Hall attended Sydney Technical High School in Bexley, NSW during the years 1964–1969. He placed consistently high in examination results and in his final year, was among the top achievers in his form, and the winner of Old Boys' Union Mathematics prize.[11]
Hall earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of Oxford in 1976 for research supervised by John Kingman.[1][2]
Career and research edit
Hall was an author in probability and statistics. MathSciNet lists him with 606 publications as of January 2016. He made contributions to nonparametric statistics, in particular for curve estimation and resampling: the bootstrap method, smoothing, density estimation, and bandwidth selection. He worked on numerous applications across fields of economics, engineering, physical science and biological science. Hall also made contributions to surface roughness measurement using fractals. In probability theory he made many contributions to limit theory, spatial processes and stochastic geometry. His paper "Theoretical comparison of bootstrap confidence intervals" (Annals of Statistics, 1988) has been reprinted in the Breakthroughs in Statistics collection.
He was an Australian Research Council (ARC) Laureate Fellow at the School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Melbourne,[12] and also had a joint appointment at University of California Davis.[13] He previously held a professorship at the Centre for Mathematics and its Applications at the Australian National University.
Honours and awards edit
His awards and honours included:
- 2015 Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia[14]
- 2013 Foreign Associate, National Academy of Sciences[15]
- 2013 Officer of the Order of Australia[16]
- 2012 Wilks Memorial Award[17]
- 2011 Australian Laureate Fellowship[18]
- 2011 Guy Medal in Silver[19]
- 2010 George Szekeres Medal[20]
- 2009 Honorary Doctor of Science degree from The University of Sydney[21]
- 2007 Matthew Flinders Medal and Lecture[22]
- 2000 Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)[3]
- 1998 Invited Speaker of the International Congress of Mathematicians[23]
- 1996 Fellow of the American Statistical Association[24]
- 1994 Hannan Medal of the Australian Academy of Science[25]
- 1990 Pitman Medal from the Statistical Society of Australia[26]
- 1989 Committee of presidents of Statistical Societies Award
- 1987 Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science[27]
- 1986 Rollo Davidson Prize, University of Cambridge[28]
- 1986 Australian Mathematical Society Medal[29]
- 1986 Edgeworth David Medal, Royal Society of New South Wales[30]
- 1984 Fellow of Institute of Mathematical Statistics[31]
Published books edit
- P. Hall; C.C. Heyde (1980): Martingale Limit Theory and its Application, Academic Press, New York. ISBN 0-12-319350-8
- P. Hall (1982): Rates of Convergence in the Central Limit Theorem, Pitman, London. ISBN 0-273-08565-4
- P. Hall (1988): Introduction to the Theory of Coverage Processes, Wiley, New York. ISBN 0-471-85702-5
- P. Hall (1992): The Bootstrap and Edgeworth Expansion, Springer, New York. ISBN 0-387-97720-1
Personal life edit
Peter Hall was born to radiophysics and radio astronomy pioneer Ruby Payne-Scott and telephone technician William Holman Hall. His younger sister is artistic photographer and sculptor, Fiona Margaret Hall.[32] Hall was a keen photographer with a special interest in train photography.[5] He enjoyed travel and was a regular visitor to many universities around the world. He died of leukaemia in Melbourne on 9 January 2016. He is survived by his wife, Jeannie.
References edit
- ^ a b Hall, Peter Gavin (1976). Some Problems in Limit Theory for Stochastic Processes and Sums of Random Variables. bodleian.ox.ac.uk (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford. OCLC 500461400. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.457865.
- ^ a b Peter Gavin Hall at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
- ^ a b Robinson, John; Welsh, Alan H. (2018). "Peter Gavin Hall. 20 November 1951 – 9 January 2016". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 64. London: Royal Society: 207–229. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2017.0035. ISSN 0080-4606.
- ^ Peter Gavin Hall publications indexed by Google Scholar
- ^ a b "American Statistical Association, Obituary – Peter G. Hall". Retrieved 12 January 2016.
- ^ "University of Melbourne Media Release: Peter Hall Building". 10 October 2019.
- ^ University of Melbourne, School of Mathematics and Statistics: Professor Peter Hall 17 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Peter Hall Memorial Conference". hallmemorialconference.ucdavis.edu.
- ^ "Peter Gavin Hall". peterhallmemorial.ucdavis.edu.
- ^ Levey. "Peter_Gavin_Hall". www.stat-center.pku.edu.cn.
- ^ STHS Journal, 1970
- ^ (PDF). 2011 Australian Laureate Fellows. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 February 2014. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
- ^ . Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 4 March 2011.
- ^ "Academy Fellow – Professor Peter Hall FASSA". Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Retrieved 25 November 2023.
- ^ "News from the National Academy of Sciences 2013". 30 April 2013.
- ^ . 14 February 2013. Archived from the original on 13 May 2014.
- ^ Wilks Memorial Award 2012
- ^ "Australian Laureate Fellows for 2011 announced". Research Career. 10 August 2011. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
- ^ "Peter Hall accepts Guy Medal". RSSeNews. Royal Statistical Society. 3 June 2011.
- ^ "George Szekeres Medal for 2010". 10 January 2010.
- ^ "University of Sydney Honorary Awards: Professor Peter Gavin Hall". Retrieved 20 January 2016.
- ^ "Awardees for 2007". Australian Academy of Science. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
- ^ Hall, Peter; Presnell, Brett (1998). "Applications of intentionally biased bootstrap methods". Doc. Math. (Bielefeld) Extra Vol. ICM Berlin, 1998, vol. III. pp. 257–268.
- ^ "List of ASA Fellows". American Statistical Association. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
- ^ "Hannan Medal and Lecture". Australian Academy of Science. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
- ^ . Archived from the original on 14 February 2016. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
- ^ . www.sciencearchive.org.au. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
- ^ "Rollo Davidson Trust" (PDF). Newsletter of the London Mathematical Society (129): 5. May 1986. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
- ^ "The Australian Mathematical Society Medal". Australian Mathematical Society. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
- ^ . Archived from the original on 2 November 2015. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
- ^ . imstat.org. Archived from the original on 19 October 2016. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
- ^ Goss, W. Miller; McGee, Richard X. (24 September 2009). Under the Radar: The First Woman in Radio Astronomy. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-642-03141-0.